Weird endorsements have message for voters: Make up your own minds!!

Never has an election day been so masterfully timed to coincide with when people tune out politics as Washington’s Aug. 5 primary.

It falls within a week of the year when this is the most beautiful place on Earth, or as one Eastside pastor once put it, “Our congregation has its ups and downs at this time of summer: They’re up in the mountains or down on the Sound.”

Rep. Dave Reichert: A Seattle Times endorsement praises his goal of “creating an Alpine Lakes Wilderness.” The wilderness was created 38 years ago.

With the electorate distracted, one is tempted to cheat and turn to the endorsement advice of publications and interest groups. Beware the danger of cheating yourself; the endorsements this year are notably lacking in quality and consistency control. Some examples:

— The Seattle Times warmly endorsed U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, saying he has a “solid agenda” and praising his goal of “creating an Alpine Lakes Wilderness.” On what planet does the Times editorial board reside? The Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area was created by Congress back in 1976.

As to Reichert’s “solid agenda,” he has tried since 2007 to put an eastern King County river valley into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. He can’t get it done. He is a five-term Republican congressman whose party controls the House. What does that say about his influence?

— The two most reliable “good government” groups have come down on opposite sides of the important Seattle Proposition 1, which would create a Seattle Parks District and guarantee a revenue stream to a park system that needs care.

The League of Women Voters is opposed. The Municipal League has endorsed. Reactionary opposition from the Times can be dismissed, and The Stranger never met a levy or new funding source it didn’t like. But what to do when reliable barometers differ? Read the fair layout of for and against arguments on the Muni League website. Or watch SeattlePI.com for debate arguments next Wednesday.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash. The Seattle Times endorsed her ultra-conservative opponent in 2012, is singing her praises this year.

— The Seattle Times has gone off the deep end in its hostility toward teachers’ unions, teachers in public schools and anybody who has the nerve, gall and presumption to suggest that Washington needs new revenue streams for smaller classes and better-paid teachers.

Because of this bias, Fairview Fannie wants to bounce two of the Legislature’s too-few minority legislators, House Education Committee chair Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos in the 37th District and populist Rep. Luis Moscoso in the 1st.

Moscoso is one of just two Hispanics in our 148-member Legislature at a time when Latinos make up 11.3 percent of the state’s population.

— In a dramatic course correction, The Stranger did something sensible. It endorsed House Speaker Frank Chopp over Socialist Alternative challenger (and Kshama Sawant mini-me) Jess Spear. Two years ago, in her general election challenge to Chopp, The Stranger lionized Sawant.

At least two dissenting staff members have now become Spear carriers. Socialist Alternative has produced a jargon-laden, 2,000-word critique of The Stranger endorsement. Its operating rule seems to be, never use one word when 10 will do.

Alas, this exercise in self-absorption is obscuring why The Stranger made its endorsement. Some people talk change. Others cause it.

Chopp has been making it happen ever since he headed the Fremont Public Association. Under his leadership, the House has passed a statewide transportation package, only to see it die, alas, in the Senate. The lower chamber shamed the GOP-run Senate into passing the Washington DREAM act to aid undocumented students.

Why trade in Chopp for somebody spouting class warfare? Debates over ideological purity obscure larger questions of public interest, and what kind of candidate has a knack for sound, progressive policy.

When a nonstop-talking Dallas Cowboys linebacker named “Hollywood” Henderson taunted his team on the eve of one Super Bowl, Pittsburgh Steelers Coach Chuck Noll coined a wonderful maxim: “The empty drum bangs loudest.”

We are hearing too many empty drums in political life these days.

Back to the point: It doesn’t take long to read a King County voter pamphlet, or punch up the websites of your district’s candidates.

Some endorsers have done thoughtful, thorough jobs — The Herald of Everett comes to mind — but many have their own axes to grind.

And they flip-flop — witness The Seattle Times backing far-right 1st District U.S. House hopeful John Koster in 2012, and this year singing the praises of Rep. Suzan DelBene, who defeated him. They demonize people for what others consider a virtue, sneering at Moscoso as a “former Metro bus driver” and candidate Mike Sando as a “local teachers’ union president.”

Our nation’s founders set down a fundamental marker for government: Trust the people. Be worthy of that trust, and set aside time — even in summer.